Samuel Beckett
' Samuel Barclay Beckett' (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theater director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humor. Beckett is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century. He is considered one of the last modernists. As an inspiration to many later writers, he is also sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists. He is one of the key writers in what Martin Esslin called the "Theatre of the Absurd". His work became increasingly minimalist in his later career. Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation". He was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984. Tossup Questions # One play by this author opens with a man happily repeating the word "spool" when he finds a recording he made when he was 39 years old. That play, written for the actor Patrick Magee, features an old writer reminiscing bitterly on his younger self. One of this author's characters delivers a winding speech repeating phrases like "Testew and Cunard" and "the stones" and "the skull" after another man places a hat on his head and commands him to think. In a play by this author of Krapp's Last Tape, Lucky and Pozzo meet Vladimir and Estragon, who consider hanging themselves if the title character does not show up. For 10 points, name this Irish playwright of Waiting for Godot. # In one work by this author, the central character counts that he farts three hundred and fifteen times in a single nineteen-hour span. In that work by this man, a woman reveals that she was going to put down her dog, thus saving from a mob the man who ran the dog over with his bicycle. One novel by him seems to have at least two shifting narrators, who may be the same person, as suggested by the sentence "if I am (*) Mahood, I am Worm too." The narrator of another of his novels has a curved stick that he uses to pull things towards his bed, and tells the story of a boy called Sapo, but, finding the name absurd, changes it to Macmann when the character becomes a man. In a work by this author of The Unnameable, Father Ambrose assures that the son of an extremely fastidious detective, Jacques Moran, did not skip church. For 10 points, name this author of Malone Dies and Molloy. # A poem by this author begins by asking "What's that? An Egg?" and is based on a biography of Rene Descartes. This author of "Whoroscope" wrote a play in which the title man remembers making love to a girl in a punt and laughs at the word "spool." Another play by this author of Krapp's Last Tape begins and ends with Clov stating "it's finished, it's nearly finished," and includes characters named Nagg and Nell who live in trash cans. In his most famous play, Lucky and Pozzo alternate between leading and being led on a rope, and the title character never arrives. For 10 points, name this absurdist Irish playwright of Endgame and Waiting for Godot. # A woman's disembodied mouth is the focus of one of this writer's plays, Not I. Jacques Moran tracks down the title paralyzed writer in his novel Molloy. In one of his plays, the title character listens to recordings of his younger selves, and in another of his plays, "Me to play" is a line repeated by Hamm to Clov. This playwright of Krapp's Last Tape and Endgame wrote a play whose set features a solitary tree. That play features much hat-swapping and a nonsensical monologue by Lucky after he is instructed to think by Pozzo. For 10 points, name this playwright who created Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot. # The title character is pursued by Jacques Moran in a novel (*) by this author that forms a trilogy with Malone Dies and The Unnamable; that novel is Molloy. Willie and Winnie live buried in the sand in a play by this author. In another, Nell and Nagg lost their legs in a bicycle accident and live in trash cans in a play featuring the wheelchair-bound Hamm and his servant, Clov. Those plays are Happy Days and Endgame. The protagonists of his most famous play interact with Lucky and Pozzo, but the title character never shows up. For 10 points, Vladimir and Estragon feature in what author's Waiting for Godot?